Museum
presents
‘The Thibodaux Massacre’ Book Tour, Feb. 18

For the first time ever, a limited number of people will experience live, the on-site telling of a key story hidden from people of Louisiana. Join us for this unique tour with the author who recently verified and chronicled the story in his book, The Thibodaux Massacre. The Feb. 18 tour will begin at 10 am from the Road African American Museum, 406 Charles Street, Donaldsonville, and continue down Bayou Lafourche to Thibodaux, returning to Donaldsonville at 3 pm.

As part of its “When History Hurts” program, the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM) is sponsoring a day-long bus tour of Louisiana’s sugar cane country, which will include the site where striking Black laborers were buried after a mass murder that ended an 1887 tri-parish strike. The incident has since become known as the Thibodaux Massacre. John DeSantis, author of ‘The Thibodaux Massacre: Racial Violence and the 1887 Sugar Cane Labor Strike,” will share vivid details of this history and other events from a chartered bus making stops at locations relevant to the story. The tour includes a stop in Thibodaux where victims of the massacre are believed buried, where plans are afoot for archeological exploration by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

Critically acclaimed for its thorough research, the book is interwoven with the story of Jack Conrad, a former Lafourche Parish slave who joined the U.S. Army during the Civil War. After fighting for his freedom with other Black soldiers, he is wounded in the massacre 22 years later while watching vigilantes kill his son and others participating in the strike.

“Much of this hurtful history until now has been unknown,” said DeSantis. “This is a story of empowerment, because 25 years after emancipation these courageous people dared standing up to an oppressive culture of white supremacy.”

The tour is limited to 55 people and the tour price is $75 which includes:
* A signed copy of the book, The Thibodaux Massacre
* Lunch
* A tour of the River Road African American Museum
* A private bus tour narrated by the author

The museum’s director, Kathe Hambrick, said this special tour is meant to be “a healing tour” in the memory of those resilient sugar workers who lost their lives fighting for fare wages and equality. The history is painful, but we cannot move forward with reconciliation until there is acknowledgement of the injustices that happened right here in our own communities.